Australia passed law requiring Facebook and Google to pay local media outlets for publishing their journalistic content

The Australian Parliament on Thursday approved a law, the first in the world, allowing Google and Facebook to pay local media for the publication of their journalistic content, a week after Mark Zuckerberg’s social network blocked the news in the ocean country.

The law “will ensure that the media receive fair compensation for the content they generate, which will help to maintain journalism in the public interest in Australia,” Australian Treasury Minister Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.

Before being approved, The Australian government on Tuesday introduced a series of technical amendments to its bill, which was presented to Parliament in December, and that coincided with the announcement by Facebook and the executive of the restoration in the coming days of access to news from his country.

The Journalism Payments Act was developed following investigations by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) into the ad revenue imbalance between tech companies and media in Australia.

The new legislation It forces technology companies to negotiate compensation with the media for journalistic content published on their platforms.

The technical changes give tech companies more leeway in their media deals, and also contemplate the intervention of an arbitration panel as a last resort to set the amount to be paid if a trade deal is not successful. product.

Several countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France or India have expressed their interest in the development of this law.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this week, who said he had discussed the issue with leaders of those countries.

Google and Facebook, which have expressed embarrassment over compulsory payment, have already started making deals with Australia’s main local media, although some union sectors have warned that small journalistic organizations could be left unpaid.

The chairman of Australian media group Nine, Peter Costello, said last May that Google and Facebook generate advertising revenue of around A $ 6 billion (US $ 3.85 billion, or € 3.571 billion)., and that about 10% of that figure is the result of news content.

This law “will ensure that media companies receive fair compensation for the content they generate, which will help maintain public interest journalism in Australia,” said Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher , in a joint press release.

The ACCC determined in its final report on digital platforms, published in December 2019, that they concentrated 51% of advertising spending in 2017 in the ocean country.

Last week Facebook faced a massive campaign against him by banning Australian users from sharing and reading information on the social network.

“Remove Facebook,” “Boycott Zuckerberg” and “Facebook we need to talk” started trending this Thursday on Twitter as anger over the measure spread to several countries around the world.

With information from EFE

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